Chance and Control
by Misura
Summary: Kaiba muses on the difference between him and Otogi. [KaibaOtogi]


Chance and control

x

Warnings/notes : Seto/Otogi, drabble-ish shortie, slightly weird/ooc.

Disclaimer : I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

written at 6th september 2004, by Misura

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Seto Kaiba was not the type of person to leave anything to chance. He preferred to be in control, to view life as a mathemathical problem that could be solved by making the right calculations.

To people who doubted his cold philosophy, he pointed out the undeniable proof of his being right; he had risen from a poor orphan to the C.E.O. of one of Japan's most influential corporations. His methods of logic and reason had brought him there, thus, they had to work.

Ryuuji Otogi was, at first sight, his exact opposite.

Though the success of Dungeon Dice Monsters was far from comparable to the riches Kaiba Corp. made from their products, Otogi's capital was considerable.

But unlike Seto, Otogi made no claim to having used his superior intelligence to have accomplished this. On the contrary. Otogi claimed that it was -chance- that had made him rich.

Chance.

The concept was ridiculous. Preposterous.

When he'd first heard about it, Seto had been sure that it was all part of some elaborate scam, a cheap trick to appeal to the irrational side of the customer.

People -liked- Otogi, that much was obvious, and while his looks definitely didn't hurt, his attitude contributed to his popularity far more. Which was why Kaiba Corp.'s PR-department kept flooding Seto with guidelines on how to behave in public.

When he'd first -seen- Otogi, it had been on TV. With that worthless duelist Joey Wheeler in the midst of his personal cheergirls, wearing a dog-costume. Because, or so Seto had learned later, Otogi had made a bet with him, and Joey had lost.

And then Otogi had played the game he had invented himself, against the boy who was the King of Games, and although most watchers had thought he'd lost, Seto knew that Otogi had actually won. Won big time, even.

If Otogi would have defeated Yugi, after not telling him any rules and leaving it to Yugi to figure everything out on his own, he'd have looked like a bully. Petty and unfair. His cherished game would have become a flop.

By losing from Yugi, Otogi had ensured that -everyone- with a TV would know what Dungeon Dice Monsters was and that Yugi Mutou himself had played it. Free advertising, and the name of one of the gaming world's famous persons connected to his product.

Seto had considered it a master-piece of PR, if a little flashy.

He himself would never have risked it, in part, he acknowledged, because the wish to -win- was too strong in him. He could never make a plan that depended on him -losing-.

Otogi had taken a chance, and he'd been lucky. Had it concerned anyone else than Yugi, Seto might have suspected foul play, an enscened game for the benefit of the public, but he knew Yugi too well. Not to mention Wheeler.

He'd met Otogi at a boring reception, hosted by a corporation that used to be part of Industrial Illusions. There, he had discovered that Otogi's boasts of being 'Fortune's Favorite' weren't just an act for the other boy. Otogi -believed- it.

Otogi believed in chance as strongly as Seto believed in control.

That discovery had been ... unsettling. Unexpected.

The discovery that he too wasn't quite immune to Otogi's charm had surprised him even more.

At the time, he had told himself that he was merely reacting to Otogi's flirtations because Otogi was, in a way, his competitor. Any information he could gather about the other might be of use at some point in the future.

Love and even lust were, after all, quite illogical and irrational. They had no place in the grand schedule of his life. (His love for Mokuba was, naturally, an exception. To prove the rule.)

Yet somehow, he had ended up living together with Otogi. His PR-department had thrown a fit at first. Then, after a significant rise in sales and a serie of enthusiastic articles in the media, they had thrown a party instead. And had been smart enough to stop sending Seto memos on how to behave.

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"A hundred yen for your thoughts."

Seto looked up, frowning. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

"Yes, that's something people do before entering a room in a house not their own." Otogi shrugged. "However, since I live here too, I don't think I need to knock. Besides, you'd probably have snapped at me to go away."

"And that would have stopped you?" Seto inquired sarcastically.

"Probably not," Otogi admitted cheerfully.

"What do you want?" Seto asked coolly. "I'm busy."

Otogi shrugged. "You didn't sound like it. I haven't heard a single tick for the last ten minutes. Besides, it's near midnight. You should be in bed."

Seto wondered if Otogi had really spent ten minutes standing outside his door, listening. Or had Otogi's words been just a lucky guess?

"We're behind on the planning for this project," he said curtly. Consciously excluding Otogi from the 'we', reminding him that he only came on the third place in Seto's life, after Mokuba and Kaiba Corp..

"You have an important meeting at nine, and I promised Mokuba I'd see to it that you got some sleep tonight." Otogi flashed him a grin, causing Seto to think that he had to be more tired than he'd considered himself to be, if he made himself this easy a prey.

Alternatively, Otogi might simply know him too well. Neither of the two options was to his liking.

Seto sighed, wishing he had some more control over his life. It seemed to be slipping out of his hands quite often lately.

"We could toss for it," Otogi offered, doing his best to look wide-eyed innocent. "Heads, I leave you alone, tails, you come to bed?"

"I'll shut down my computer." Seto sighed.

Otogi nodded and set the coin to spin on Seto's desk. It fell as Seto rose.

Neither of them bothered to check the sign it was showing. They both knew it already.

Though he didn't think he'd ever be able to understand it, Seto had found out quite a while ago that for Otogi, leaving something to chance meant something quite different than for most people.

In the end, it had turned out that they weren't so very different after all.

OWARI


End file.
